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So many students in the same black uniform began entering and entering the wide stadium in which the entrance ceremony was being hosted. Many went to find spots for them and their friends, others just chatted along the way, while some just eagerly awaited the beginning of the ceremony.
Among the crowd of students, some simply stood out by just sitting down.
With all the seats around her empty, a young girl with jet-black hair, sharp velvet colored eyes, and light-tone skin was simply sitting down on her seat, legs crossed with such grace and elegance.
Once they saw her, a crowd of girls from nearby squealed with joy.
"Ah! It's Lady Ophelia! I can't believe I'm able to sit close to someone of the Bailey Family—one of the four duke families!"
"Her beauty is truly divine! Just how does she manage that long, lustrous hair of hers?"
After that, they went on and on and on about the beautiful features of her face and body, with no sign of stopping.
Ophelia sighed and flicked her hair away in annoyance because of the ruckus around her. She then glances coldly at someone across the stadium, a pink-haired boy with light pink who elegantly sits in his chair, looking so formal, nonchalant, even cold and tired.
She clicked her tongue and looked away.
"Julian Asquith. That prick also came to this school."
Another person from one of the four duchies has finally shown themselves.
Before she could finish thinking to herself, a new person suddenly blocked her view.
Ophelia looked up and saw a girl slightly bending down, making eye contact with her before smiling brightly.
She carefully moved a strand of her light brown hair behind her ear while still looking at Ophelia with her emerald eyes. "Ophy, It's been a while!"
Ophelia sighed in response. "Adeline Ambroise. Another person from one of the four duchies."
"... Indeed. It has been a while."
Adeline smiled once again before sitting on the empty seat next to her. The other girl tilted her head, confused as to why she would sit next to her.
"Ophy, your stare stings."
"... I'm just questioning if you're sane right now."
She gasps before pouting, closing her eyes and looking away like a child. "How rude! I'm clearly in good health, you know."
"I doubt it. I'm sure you received orders from the head of your families to limit your interactions with the other duke families."
"... I did."
Ophelia crossed her arms and looked down at the floor with utter annoyance. "All those old geezers care about is power. They want us to establish ourselves in the academy, rank in the top and form connections with others of the Noble Faction."
"Old geezers… your words are quite vulgar, Ophy."
Ophelia scoffs. "There's no need to speak kindly of them when they're not here."
Adeline smiles once more before looking ahead—gazing at the same pink-haired boy that Ophelia glared at earlier. "Is that why you stared coldly at Julian?"
"Partly. He's just a cocky person who thinks he's above everyone." She then leaned back on her chair, grinning arrogantly. "Ironically, he caters to the people's needs."
"... I feel like cocky is a strong word. His family are the caretakers of the empire's law after all. Maybe he's harsher on the nobles who know more about the law than the people who are abstinent to them."
"Who knows… aside from him, there's also another person to be wary of—"
The lights suddenly dimmed, and a single person slowly made their way up the stadium stairs.
The shadow above his hair slowly dwindles, and reveals a pure white snow color. His delicate features were now in full view, and it awed the whole student boy as he continued to elegantly walk towards the podium.
All the students began to quietly whisper to each other.
"Hey! that's him, right?!"
"Lysander Blakessty. There are rumors saying he's already above the fourth ring."
"He also got a perfect score in the exam under twenty minutes—the fastest record by far."
The same girls that squealed for Ophelia's beauty suddenly shed tears of joy. They held onto each other's hand, and a ray of imaginary light surrounded them as if they reached the pinnacle of enlightenment.
"Mhhm. Lady Ophelia is beautiful indeed, but Lord Lysander is incomparable."
"It's rude to compare a goddess to a mortal being."
Ophelia scooched away from the strange people before clicking her tongue.
The white-haired boy finally stood in front of the podium. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes before slowly opening them, feeling more relaxed.
He then looked at all the students in front of him—trying to find the familiar midnight-colored hair from among them, only to be left disappointed.
"... As I thought, August isn't among the crowd, nor can I feel his presence around the premix."
I smiled bitterly and began my speech. "Greetings, everyone. My name is Lysander Blakesty, a first year student just entering the academy. I was given the opportunity to give the entrance speech by the grandmaster."
As the boy began reading out his carefully prepared speech, Ophelia continued to look coldly at the boy.
After a second, Adeline glanced worriedly at her. "Ophy…"
"Yeah, he's from the Blakesty family, the last of the four duchies. He's the one we have to be wary of aside from Julian."
"I see." She looked back at the white-haired boy. "The only time he showed himself in public was at the imperial ball four years ago. His beauty was astounding then, but is even more prominent now."
"True. Like those fools next to us said, his beauty is incomparable. Not only that, but his strength and intelligence is something monstrous."
Adeline nodded. "The written exam was by no means easy. Even you, who was hailed as a genius, took forty minutes to complete it. He also completed the magic circle immediately after receiving it."
Ophelia angrily flicked her hand away. "It's annoying to admit, but he far surpasses me in every field. It's a pity that he's from the Imperial faction, alongside Julian."
"But still… What if you were to have him as your spouse—"
"Stop it, don't even try. There are many things that will make it difficult to be in a marriage with him."
"Really…?"
Ophelia nodded condescendingly while still staring at the white-haired boy. "To begin with, all marriage offers sent to him once the ball finished were immediately rejected by the Duke and Duchess without proper reasonings."
She then closes her eyes with frustration. "Those old geezers also sent them a marriage proposal with me being the bride."
"Oh…!"
"Of course, as you can tell, it was also rejected. The second reason is quite obvious, but he's from a family that is part of the Imperial Faction. Tension between the two factions has been increasing lately, so no way in hell will it be possible."
"I see… both our families are from the Noble Faction. But I personally don't believe in their ideology. It seems way too… materialistic."
"I feel the same way. All they care about is profit. But all we can do is go alongside them if we want to remain in the family as the heirs."
"True… Say, what's the last reason?"
Ophelia sat there in silence before a cold sweat ran down her face. "Lastly… someone already has eyes for him."
"No way, really?! Is that why all of the marriages were rejected?"
"Maybe… is just the person that troubles me."
"Who could it be?"
She continued to remain silent, closing her eyes before letting out a sigh. "The Imperial Prince."
"The prince…?"
"It was pretty much displayed in the imperial ball. When the noble children began to ask for Lysander's hand, they were immediately told off by the prince with a cold glare. It was more grounded when there were rumors of the prince staying at the Blakesty estate these four years"
"I see… so the chances of him being the next empress is high."
"Yep, that's why marriage is impossible with him."
"Interesting! It's been a long time since we had a male empress."
The whole space soon echoed out with applause as the white-haired boy finished his speech and began to walks down the stairs of the podium.
Soon, a middle-aged woman with a wizard hat over her dark-brown hair and a cloak walked up to the podium with a warm smile.
"What a lovely speech it was, Lysander! I stand before everyone here to congratulate you all for entering Lusia academy! You all managed to display outstanding performance."
She quickly places her hand in her chest. "You may or may not know me. Nevertheless, I will introduce myself to you all. I am Indila, the grandmaster of this precious academy. I thrive to make this school accessible to all those within the empire and beyond. Granting equal status and education to those that are willing."
As she continued to talk about her hope, about her mission and about her wish, Ophelia let out a deep sigh. "How redundant."
"She seems like a nice person, but…"
"Yeah, the other board members have their own ideologies. Even when she tries to make everyone equal, there is still inequality present."
"How unfortunate."
"Indeed… but still."
The white-haired boy silently sat next to her, paying close attention to what the grandmaster was saying while still looking ever so elegant.
An awkward sweat ran down Ophelia's face while the other students couldn't help but stare at him with awe.
"Why the hell is he sitting next to me?!"
Feeling the uncomfortable stare of the girl next to her, the white-haired boy slowly turned his head around. "Is something the matter?"
Ophelia couldn't help but flinch as he initiated a conversation. She then looked away embarrassedly, not immune to his beauty. "N-No… I was just wondering why you decided to sit next to me."
"Ah… well it was one of the only empty seats available."
"True. Everyone tried hard to not sit close to me, with Adeline being the only one to sit next to me. As for Julias, he already has a group of people flocking all over him. The amount of seats reflects the amount of students currently attending. But there was still one seat behind me!"
"I-I see."
An awkward silence filled the space between them.
"You're… Ophelia Bailey, right? A pleasure to meet you."
Hearing the kind words from him, Ophelia looked back at him with a small blush. "You know me?"
He nodded. "I made sure to memorize everyone's name and faces that are attending the school. Especially those of high societal status or importance."
A shudder ran down her spine. "Even with a low acceptance rate, there are more than five thousand people attending the academy from first to fourth years. How could he remember them all?!"
"I-I see."
Adeline leaned forward to have a clear look at the boy. "Hey, Hey! Do you also know me!?"
The boy nodded once again. "Adeline Ambroise, right?"
"Yep! Nice to meet you! Hope we can become friends!"
Ophelia couldn't help but sigh towards Adeline's giddy attitude. "Stop. We were told not to interact with the other duke families—"
"Friends…" The white-haired boy slowly smiled back at them. "Yes… I hope we can all become friends."
Both girl's hearts skipped a beat at the beautiful sight before Ophelia regained her thought and looked away. "F-Fine. There's no harm in being acquainted with one another."
The white-haired boy slightly chuckled before looking forward, still showing his warm and radiant smile at everyone.
In the views of other people who saw the boy smile, a ray of light metaphorically emerged from him like an angel—making everyone blush and adore him.
"Ah. How cute."
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"It's dinnertime! Quick, let's get something to eat!"
As the ceremony finally ended, all the students began heading in their own way. Some went to get dinner, while others headed to their dorms to rest or hang out with their friends.
I slowly walked out of the building with the two people I met with me.
Ophelia pointed aggressively at Adeline with her thumb. "We'll be heading to the dining hall since this girl is starving."
"How rude!"
Ophelia playfully chuckles before looking back at me. "Where are you heading?"
"I'll… be heading back to the dormitory. I don't have much of an appetite at the moment."
"I see… Well, make sure to get some rest then. Classes begin tomorrow after all."
Both of them happily waved goodbye as we began to branch off, and I waved back with slight bitterness filling my heart. I then began my walk towards the dormitory, and along the way I saw some people grouped together happily talking with each other while eating in the open field—like a picnic of some sorts.
Seeing such a happy scene, I smiled but continued towards my destination before someone yelled.
"Hey, you!"
I glanced at the person yelling. It was a short dark-skinned dwarf girl with grey hair. I looked around to see who she was calling out too before pointing at myself.
"You mean me…?"
"Yes you! Come join us!"
I stood there motionlessly, deciding whether to join them or not. Before I knew it, I slowly began walking towards her. Once I got close to the group of people, she quickly patted my arm, hard enough to leave a numbing feeling.
"Good! Whenever I see someone as skinny as you, I always try to feed them with so much food. I bet you were gonna skip dinner, no?"
"Ah… yeah, I was heading to my dorm—"
"I knew it! Come sit with us. We have more food than what we could do with."
She quickly sat down on the blanket with the multitudes of food carefully placed all over in the open space.
"She kidnapped someone else again, haha."
I slowly sat down on the blanket before looking at the one who spoke just now. A blonde elf girl with bright green eyes.
She smiled warmly. "My name is Azalea. As you can see, I'm an elf from the elf kingdom."
"I see… nice to meet you."
The left kingdom borders the Izora and Holy Empire down south. I lack some knowledge about them—especially on how they live or socialize others, aside from the stereotypes from my past life.
The dwarf girl waved her hand playfully. "I forgot to introduce myself. The name is Gia, happy to meet ya!"
A dwarf… The dwarf kingdom comes from the cold-stricken north and solely borders the Izora kingdom and the grand mountains around them.
A boy with wavy-black hair, wolf ears and a big fluffy tail wagging around excitedly raised his hand up high, looking excited. "Me, Me! Let me introduce myself, too!"
Looking so proud, everyone chuckled and turned their attention to him. "My name is Bertik the wolfman! I come from the beast kingdom."
I happily nodded. "Nice to meet you, Bertik."
Hearing my response, he leaned back and began to look so smug. "Hehe~"
The beast kingdom borders the elf and Izora kingdom down south, and is ruled by different kinds of beastman within given land—including wolfmen like Bertik. But of course, it follows a strict social hierarchy that closely mirrors predators and prey relationships in nature.
The last person that I have yet to know is laying down on the blanket. Her eyes were shut closed, and her dark-brunette hair scattered all over the blanket as she gently hums out a beautiful tune.
Gia threw a piece of grape at her. "Oi, Bell! Don't go out sleeping!"
The girl gently rubs the area that the grape hit, and slowly opens her eyes to expose the bloody-red irises that remind me of Veda. "... My name is Bell. It's a pleasure to meet you."
She closed her eyes, and went on to hum out her beautiful tune again.
Gia sighs before looking at me. "As you can see… she is a half-vampire. There are many that hate her kind, but she's not dangerous, I promise!"
"Don't worry, I also know a half-vampire—"
Bell's eyes suddenly opened wide and quickly jumped up, grabbed my hand, and looked into my eyes with sparkling anticipation. "Please introduce them to me."
"Huh—"
Gia pulled her away. "Now now, enough chatting. It's time to eat!"
A lot of food was laid out on the blanket—all that I'm unfamiliar with.
Everyone began to get their portions while happily talking to each other. Gia slightly poked at my cheek as I continued to just daze at the scene in front of me.
"You're Lysander Blakesty, the one that gave the speech, right?"
I slowly nodded. "Indeed."
She smiled before and looked back at everyone. "I'm still new to this place. Thankfully, when I was traveling to the Empire, I met these people along the way. We hit it off and became close to one another."
She then looked back at me. "Well, I can kind of get the gist of you. With the way everyone reacted as you stepped up the stage, you must be a person of high status, right?"
"Who… knows. Status doesn't mean a thing here. So just treat me like any other student here."
"Is that so? I'm glad that you're not as arrogant as the rest of the nobles here. Once they see someone who is not human, they immediately look at us with disgust and call us all sorts of names."
I sighed. "How embarrassing… I don't wish to associate myself with such people."
She smiled widely and put her thumb up. "Haha. It's nice to hear that. I hope you can become friends with us!"
"Friends…"
"Yep, friends. The moment you agreed to eat with us, you already became friends with us, whether you like it or not. That's how it worked back in the dwarf kingdom."
I softly chuckled. "That's nice to hear. I hope to continue being friends with you all."
"Same for me! Come now, eat! I don't cook all this for it to go to waste!"
"You cooked this? You must be skilled."
"Nah… I just simply throw random ingredients. They just turn out to be great, that's all."
"How humble…"
The more I talked with everyone, the more I began to feel closer to them.
They shared many stories and experiences that I never would've been able to live through, so it was so awe-strucking to hear. After an hour or so went by, everyone began to get up and clean after themselves to leave.
Azalea quickly bowed down to everyone and then smiled happily. "I'll be heading out now. I'll see you all later."
Bertik happily waved goodbye to us with the Bell by his side, gently waving her hand before heading to their own separate way.
Gia was the last one to stay behind. She began putting everything on the picnic basket and cleaned up the little mess that was left behind.
"Do you need help?"
She shook her head. "Nah, just leave this to me."
After she finished putting everything back, she wiped the sweat off her head before looking back at me. "You're a mage right?"
I slowly nodded.
Seeing my response she smiled brightly. "Nice. I also applied to be a mage. Hopefully we're in the same classroom!" She then patted my arm once again. "I'll be heading out now. It was a pleasure to meet you, Lysander!"
I slowly smiled back, softening my eyes as I heard those kind words. "It was nice to meet you too, Gia."
As she waved goodbye at me, I slowly felt this warm feeling inside my heart turn into subtle sadness.
Is this what it feels like to feel alone…?
I've never really experienced such an emotion before. Maybe because I didn't really have friends, or because I was never separated from those close to me.
I'm glad, though, that I finally have an opportunity to feel such an emotion. It's helping me realize that I truly am a human being, and nothing less.
I took slow and steady breaths before gazing up at the orange sky—with the sun setting down from one end, and the midnight-colored sky now emerging from the other.
"I should head back to the dorm now."
Slowly walking along the path, still seeing many other students enjoying their time with others or alone, I felt a sense of ease filling my heart.
So many thoughts began to distract me—many just being simple things like how beautiful this place is, or how school life is going to be like from here on out.
Without realizing it, I finally arrived in front of the dormitory.
The sky turned dark, and only the midnight-color filled the whole sky with the shimmering stars scattered all over with glee. The more I stared at the sky, the more I began to think about him.
Just… why did he have to leave without telling me anything—without telling me when he will come back.
I couldn't but sigh as this negative thought began to fill my head. I then looked down at the ground, seeing my own dim shadow created by the moon above.
Suddenly… another shadow appeared next to mine, and then I heard a familiar voice echo through the space.
"Lys…?"
I froze. "Is it… Is it him…?"
I looked behind me to see August standing there with the same black uniform as everyone else.
At first, he had a bitter expression. But he then forced out a warm smile and gently reached out to me—as if nothing was wrong.
"L-Lys, I'm glad to finally see you again…"
He took a step forward, but out of instinct… I stepped back.
He saw how I reacted, and his smile slowly faded. He then clenched his stretched out hand before pulling back, looking ever so guilty.
Seeing him in front of me, I should be happy… right? I should be glad that I can finally see him again, glad that I could be his side and hang out with while talking about everything that I could possibly think about —
Just like always.
I should be happy, but…
Why… Just why do I feel so…
Bitter?
I grasped the cloth around my heart, and looked away from him.
I should be happy to see him, but why do I feel slightly…
Angry?
Just why am I feeling angry? Why do I feel bitter?
Why am I not feeling happy?
I sighed, trying my best to calm down this turmoil of emotions surging within me before looking back at August with a bitter smile.
"It's nice to see you too, August…"
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